1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the photomechanical production of multi-color images in a single sheet or substrate without printing. The invention has particular application in the proofing of color separation negatives preparatory to multi-color lithographic reproduction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In printing pictorial matter, whether by lithography, letterpress or gravure, the half tone process is used, wherein the actual printing image is composed of thousands of minute dots per square inch of a single color ink of varied dot size or ink density. What the naked eye sees as shading in half tone prints is actually a controlled variation in the size of dots relative to the unprinted areas between the dots. In black and white pictorial matter the dots are printed in black ink only. Full color reproductions, however, are necessarily printed in each of at least three colors, cyan, magenta, and yellow (known as "three color process"), or in these same colors with the addition of black ("four color process"). For each color a separate printing plate is made. In order to make the three or four printing plates, the original color picture or photograph is "separated" photographically, with the use of filters, masks, etc., into a set of three or four half-tone negatives, each representing one of the colors, and containing, dot for dot, the amount of that color which must be printed to produce the desired total color print.
The preparation of the color-separation negative is an art and requires considerable skill in handling the many variables to produce a desired result. Often trial and error is involved requiring correction or replacement of one or more of the negatives. Unless some reliable system is available to "proof" the negatives, the printing press must be set up and copy printed just to secure preliminary proofs. This is time consuming and expensive. It is therefore desirable to provide accurate means for proofing the negatives without printing.
One system for proofing color separation negatives is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,136,637. A light-sensitive transparent sheet is provided for each of the colors to be printed. Each of the sheets is exposed through its respective color separation negative. Upon processing, the color in the non-image areas is removed, yielding a sheet which contains the desired color pattern in the image areas, while being colorless and transparent in the non-image areas (e.g., between halftone dots). After each of the separate sheets is made, they are assembled together in registry on a white background, whereupon a color proof results.
That system of color proofing has a number of inherent drawbacks. For example, the laying up of the multiplicity of sheets requires that the viewer look through a plurality (three or four) of transparent films during the proofing operation. Since the composite is made of several separate sheets, extreme care is required to maintain registry. If the individual sheets are not perfectly colorless and transparent in the optical sense, any "haze" or imperfection present is multiplied in the several sheets. Additionally, incident light reflects from the several sheets imparting a gloss which is not truly representative of printed copy, thus introducing a need for interpretation in evaluating the proof.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,671,236 improves upon the proofing system described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,136,637. Photomechanically produced images corresponding with each color are integrally built up on a single substrate (much as occurs in the actual printing operation itself) without any printing operations. The multiplicity of carrier films is eliminated by transferring individual color images from a sheet comprised of (1) a carrier with release surface, (2) pigment and binder layer, (3) photohardenable or insolubilizable layer, (4) barrier layer and (5) pressure-sensitive adhesive layer.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 764,246, filed Aug. 9, 1985 discloses an imaging system similar to that described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,671,236 except that a thermal adhesive with specific properties is used in place of the pressure-sensitive adhesive.